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$800 to spend on speakers, $1500 on whole system

I am new to community and am seeking advice on my first good sound system. I am looking to spend $500-800 on a used set of two speakers for my living room, which is not very large. I cannot decide between bookshelf speakers or a floor speaker. I will be listening mostly to digital music, and I could use recommendations on a DAC and receiver. I would like the receiver to be bluetooth if high quality receivers come with this feature, but that's not a deal breaker for me.

My Ideal system would have two speakers at $500-800 and with receiver, DAC, cables, and anything else I would need totaling around $1200, but $1500 maximum. I figured I would start with speakers and go from there.

I like to listen to most music, except rap. Heavy metal, funk, jazz. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks

pawadalla

Showing 1 response by surge

surge's avatar
surge
30 posts
 
The best quality for the $ is to avoid buying retail.

Right now I'm listening to $400 full range RCA MI-12480 Alnico (read about this, they don't use such powerful magnets anywhere near this price point if you buy retail anymore) drivers in a DIY wood open baffle. They sound far better than my $3,000 Monitor Audio GS 20s.

I would pair this to a vintage tube amp that you can buy for about $400. Something like a Fisher EL84. 

Then buy a pre-owned but recent model DAC.

Save a few hundred for room acoustic treatment panels from Stillpoints or GIK. These will make a TREMENDOUS difference to the sound. I would start with these first. GIK will tell you what you need. You can use 5D Planner to create a free rendering of your room. 

So so your budget could be something like this:
$200 panels
$400 speakers 
$400 amp
$500 DAC
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